Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said Monday that business in his state will likely have to change the way they operate for the next year and a half due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
“I think most of these retailers and businesses understand they’re going to have to change the way business is being done for about the next 18 months,” he declared at a press conference, according to the Star Tribune.
He claimed that businesses are “going to have to do that [alter practice] regardless of what a stay-at-home order looks like because people are naturally understanding that we’re going to have to social distance because their shopping and their retail buying experience is going to change dramatically.”
Walz’s prediction comes shortly after the President of the Minnesota Federal Reserve walked back his prediction that the economy may remain suppressed for the next 18 months. The governor’s statement also comes just three days after hundreds of Minnesotans gathered outside the Governor’s Mansion to demand that he lift the stay at home order.
Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka warns that business “need to be open to survive,” and that the consequences of further economic stagnation could be “dire,” per the Star Tribune.
Charlie Weaver, president of the Minnesota Business Partnership, has also expressed similar concern. “I believe that we’re never going to get back to the way it was before,” he said. Some effects of the COVID-19 epidemic and its associated economic shutdowns may become a “new normal,” for the economy, he adds.
Kyle Hooten
Kyle Hooten is Managing Editor of Alpha News. His coverage of Minneapolis has been featured on television shows like Tucker Carlson Tonight and in print media outlets like the Wall Street Journal.
